The Roman constitution

Modern textbooks and websites (including this one) abound with lists and diagrams

with dry and theoretical descriptions of offices, assemblies and roles. These are

helpful in understanding the basic principles of the Roman constitution and how it

was used as a model by a number of subsequent governments. However, if one truly

wants to understand and appreciate the Roman constitution (as well as its numerous

parallels with modern governments), one must examine how and when these

principles were used in practice. One of the most dangerous assumptions we can

make about the ancient world is that the Roman constitution was applied in a singular

way to different individuals or across a vast chronological period. As Rome changed

and expanded, so did her government.

As Rome expanded in Italy and throughout the Mediterranean, as she faced invasion

and civic unrest, how were her laws applied? What was ‘due process’? Was it

consistent? You will gain much more by looking at a few specific events across a

broad period than by trying to draw generalities across the entire period of the

republic. A similar comparison can be done with individuals and the progression of a

career path in Rome. As we meet famous (and infamous) Romans, such as Spurius

Maelius, Appius Claudius Caecus, P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the Gracchi

brothers, Sulla, Marius, Cicero and Caesar, it is also worth looking not only at the

official roles (censor, praetor, consul) but who holds them? Are their powers and

terms of office always upheld?

For a brief exploration of the Roman constitution in terms of specific events, see the

accompanying PowerPoint presentation, which examines the constitution in practice

during three specific events in the history of the republic: Cincinnatus versus Spurius

Maelius (c. 439 BC); Tiberius Gracchus and the Lex Sempronia Agraria (c. 133 BC);

and Cicero and the Catiline Conspiracy (62 BC). Officials in numerous offices

(consul, dictator, tribune of the plebs) from various backgrounds are examined, and

the following questions are considered:

• Were the powers of the tribune of the plebs sacrosanct (inviolate)?

• Was a dictator necessary?

• Who has imperium (the power to kill a Roman citizen)?

• Are the outcomes of these events consistent with the system of checks and

balances set out in diagrams of the Roman constitution?

Bibliography

A. Lintott, The Constitution of the Roman Republic, Clarendon Press, 1999. This

remains the most comprehensive analysis of the Roman constitution.

To read more about specific events as well as the structure of the republic, primary

source accounts (all available in Penguin Classics editions) are best. These books, in

addition to providing excellent translations, have indexes for names and key terms as

well as thoughtful introductions to the events and the authors who described them:

Livy, The Early History of Rome (for Spurius Maelius, see Book 4, chapter

13)

Plutarch, The Makers of Rome

Plutarch, Fall of the Roman Republic (for Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus)

Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire (although often a dry account of the

Roman constitution, which Polybius is explaining to a Greek readership, if

nothing else this offers an interesting perspective on Rome’s government)

Cicero, Selected Political Speeches (for the Catiline Conspiracy, see In

Catilinam; and compare with Sallust’s The War with Catiline, Books 20–60)

Cicero, Selected Letters

Appian, The Civil Wars